Crossposted from
InsanelyMac forums:
The situation is: my roomie and I've been using his 1.66 Core 2 Mac Mini as a media center for the past year and a half or so. He's moving out of town, and he's offered to sell me the Mini for $350. He's upgraded it to 2GB RAM and a SuperDrive, and is planning on putting a 250GB hard drive in there too, so that's a pretty good deal.
But I'm caught in the age-old "power versus size" conundrum -- if I wanted to go mid tower, I know I could get a more powerful and more expandable system for the money.
So, here's what I've already got lying around the house:
Lian-Li PC-62 aluminum case
GeForce 7300GT (PCIE) (came with my desktop, a Mac Pro)
5.1 speakers (analog, mini-stereo)
DVD-ROM drives (an old IDE one and an external USB burner)
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
ATI Remote Wonder
DVI-to-HDMI cable
HDTV with HDMI input
Here are some things I'm looking at (all on NewEgg):
Power supply: Corsair CMPSU-650TX ($80 w/ rebate)
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L ($80)
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS ($50)
Processor: Core 2 Duo E7400 ($120)
RAM: 4GB Corsair ($45)
Bluetooth adapter: D-Link DBT-120 ($22)
Some considerations:
* I'm trying to stay in the $300-$400 range.
* Mainly a media box -- meaning I want it to be relatively quiet (doesn't have to be whisper-quiet or anything) and play 720p video. Everything else after that is gravy.
* Not that concerned about HD space -- I can store my movies on my Mac Pro, and can always add more drives.
* To that end, I want something expandable -- wouldn't mind triple-booting Windows 7 and Mythbuntu at some point. (Or adding a Blu-Ray drive, though I understand OSX won't play Blu-Ray movies yet.)
Thoughts, suggestions, concerns, things I've missed? Does this look like a decent budget media center? Should I make some tweaks? Should I just forget the whole thing and buy that Mini instead?
Thanks!